7S00 T1iEAP1VAtITAGES OP HUMILITY EsEOT.1V, conceited creatures will make the world know all their talents of body and mind, and will carefully spread abroad those possessions of equipage or title, which help to support their pride : and as a noble author expresses, " they are so top-full of self that they spill it upon all the company ;" and a nobler person than he confirms the reason, " Out ofthe abundance of their heart the mouth speaketh !" Mat. xii. 34. And surely if the vessel of the heart werenot brim-full of self it would not be always running over at the lips. They regard not the advice of the wisest of men ; Prov. xxvii. 2. " Let another praise thee and not thy own mouth ; not thy lips, but the lips of a stranger." Besides these vain and shameless boasters there is an- other tribe of creatures whoare as vain adorers of self; but they put on a disguise that they may more effectually and secretly secure the praises of their dear and beloved idol. You shall hear them now and then invent an occa- sion, without any incident leading to it, to drop some lessening word concerning themselves that 'the company may give them the pleasure of contradicting them. It is not that these appearing self- abasers believe a word of what they say, nor is itsaid with a desire that you should believe them when they, express their mean esteem of their own talents or virtues ; but they are exceeding fond to hear themselves talked of to advantage, and when they give you this occasion they expect your civility should incline yon to take it. These persons are always angling. for praise, and some of them practise it in so gross and inartificial a manner, that the design of their vanity too plainly discovers itself. The bait is lost because the hook appears ; and when they have made a speech of their own unworthiness the company sometimes is sojust and so wise as to allow them to be in the right, and so . complaisant as not to contradict them : But then how abject, how mortified and simple they look under the painful disappointment ! They fished for honour and to their sore regret they caught the truth. O when shall this haughty thing self unlearn all its vanity ? When shall we be content to be unseen and unnoticed in the world ? To be unknown, as Jesus the Son of God was, for thirty years -together ? Jesus the brightness of his Fathers glory was content to be un- known in .a world which he himself created; " He came
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